There is a legend that the moon was once a python and made a road for itself on the earth. Some adventurous trappers, however, snared it, but on noticing there was no more moonlight they let it go, whereupon it sprang into the sky and never again returned to earth. When there is no moon, some say that the python has gone on a long journey, and others that it dies every month. There is much shouting and gesticulating on the appearance of a new moon; and those who have enjoyed good health ask that it may be continued, and those who have been sick ascribe their complaint to the coming of the new moon, and ask it to take away bad health and give them good health in its place.
Here, as on the Lower Congo, many believe that the sun returns from the west to the east during the night to be ready to rise in the morning. They were taught that the stars were a species of large fire-flies that formerly existed on the earth, but have now gone into space, and that the comets are signs that a great chief has recently died.
Another thing necessary to the young Congo boy was to teach him, not the movements of the clock’s hands, but the crowing of the cocks, the notes of the nkuku-mpembe (name of a bird), and the movements of the sun: 2 a.m. was “the lying fowl”; 3 a.m. “the lying bird”—because they falsely heralded the dawn which was not due until later; 4 a.m. was “the first fowl”; 4 to 5 a.m. “the sun is near”; 5.30 to 6 a.m. “the dawning”; 6 a.m. “the sun is come”; 6.15 to 7 a.m. “the first sun”; 12 noon “the meridian”; 6 p.m. “when the fowls go in,” or “the sun enters”; 11 to 12 p.m. “one set of ribs,” or “one side of a person,” and means that about that time a person turns from lying on one side over on to the other. For all these and many other divisions of the day there were special names or phrases. Then there was a system of counting, and an elaborate mode of stating numbers with the fingers[[15]] which I must enter into more fully under another heading; suffice it to say that he had to learn to count from one up to ten thousand, and any amount beyond that up to one hundred thousand he had no difficulty in expressing after he had once mastered the system.
[15]. See Appendix, Note 3, on Boloki method of counting.
The length of time that a child remained under the tutelage of his father depended largely on the character of both, and the strength of will each possessed. There were no bachelor houses in the villages, consequently male and female children belonging to the same mother were brought up together in her house until such times as the boys were old enough to build a house for themselves, if they cared so to do. There was no age limit. I have known big lads sleep in their mothers’ houses; and I have know smallish lads of energy and initiative combine to build a hut for themselves of which they were very proud.
From his very boyhood the Boloki was a keen trader. He accompanied his father on all trading journeys as soon as he was able to beat time with a stick in the bows of the canoe, or handle a paddle. In the village he learned the value of different articles, and nothing delighted him more than exchanging what he did not want for something that he needed. While his father was bartering he would eagerly listen, and thus learn how to praise his own goods, and disparage in depreciatory terms the articles which he desired to purchase, so as to lower their prices. Before an article could be exchanged with profit to himself he had many things to learn—the first cost of the article, the time spent in hawking it, the payment and keep of those who helped to paddle him from place to place in search of a buyer—or he would find himself poorer at the end of his trading expedition than he was at the beginning. This was no small part of the lad’s education.
The boy, as a part of his training, had to learn to handle his paddle with agility, gracefulness, and accuracy. There were clumsy paddlers who were the butt of their companions’ ridicule, but there were others who so swung their paddles as to excite the admiration of the onlookers. As a child his father gave him a toy paddle and taught him how to back-water, to steer, and to move his paddle in unison with others. Nor was this all, for there were over fifty words and phrases he had to learn dealing with canoeing. There were the words for canoes of different sizes and shapes, from the large canoe that would take fifty paddles and a heavy cargo to the shallow marsh canoe that would skim over the surface of a six-inch pool. There were the names for the various parts of the canoe—stern, bows, middle, sides, etc.; for beaching, launching, steering, turning sharp round corners, or guiding the canoe to a landing-place. There were names for a patch on a canoe, for the usable part of a broken canoe, for the haft and blade of his paddle, and for their various sizes. These and many other things about canoes he had to know before his education was completed.
The Boloki boys, living near the river as they did, learned to be good swimmers. They started swimming at so early an age that they regarded it as a natural action as much as walking. Canoes were often upset in the storms or turned over by a hippopotamus, therefore it was necessary for a lad to know how to save himself. The hand-over-hand stroke was most common, and they kicked out with the legs. They trod the water very well; but they always dived feet first, never head first. When a canoe was upset they were very dexterous in turning it over, bailing it out, putting their possessions (such as were floating) back into the canoe, catching their paddles, and then climbing into their frail canoe again without upsetting it. This I have seen them do repeatedly, and often sent out a canoe to help them, but before it arrived they would be sitting in their canoe smiling. The girls learned both to swim and paddle; but the same skill in either accomplishment was not expected of them as of the boys.
The boys went with their fathers on fishing and hunting expeditions. They were taught how to make the various fish-traps and nets, and the best places to put them in the river, creeks, or pools, and also how to bait and cast the hook. There were curious kinds of traps to make that would allow the fish to enter, but rigidly bar their exit; long fish-fences for closing up the mouths of creeks, or run for forty yards by the river bank; nets to be woven, which when cast with the right sort of twist would entangle the unwary fish. They had to learn to watch the river for the best time for setting the traps and fixing the fences. They had to remember to address their father and the other fishermen as Mwele,[[16]] for if the water-spirits heard their proper names they would turn aside the fish from the nets, and they would have ill-luck in their expedition. There were the names of a score of traps, nets, and modes of fishing to keep in mind.
[16]. This name is given to all fishermen while fishing, and just as they leave the river with their catch, or bad luck will follow.